Land & Liberty

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Dr. Martin Jacobson defended his Ph.D. thesis Land & Liberty: On the Natural Monopoly of Violence at the Department of Government at Uppsala University in 2024. The thesis explores the relationship between geoism and anarchism. The main argument of the thesis is that there is a close isomorphism between the territorial authority of states and private landownership. Hence, the geoist critique of landownership extends to a critique of territorial state authority, while the anarchist critique of state authority extends to a critique of landownership. Finally, the thesis inquires to what extent geoism and anarchism could be reconciled with each other.  

Dr. Martin Jacobson’s research focuses on the political theory of geoism, also known as left-libertarianism. He is currently embarking on a three-year postdoc project, entitled Towards a Natural Theory of Political Equality, which will run from 2025 to 2028. Based at Uppsala University, the project will investigate land rights and geoist theory in relationship to political equality. Especially, the project will focus on democratic theory, social contract theory, and distributive justice. During the project, Martin will spend the academic year 2025-26 as a guest researcher at Virginia Tech, in 2026-2027 he will return to Oslo and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, as a guest researcher, before completing his project in Uppsala in 2027-2028.